Shirley (Severance) Holmes, 81

Shirley (Severance) Holmes, of East Providence, a retired administrator in education and banking, died Saturday, Dec. 29, 2012, at Rhode Island Hospital. She was 81.

She was the wife of the late Richard L. Holmes. Born in Boston, she was the daughter of the late Louis H. and Marion (Jenness) Severance.

Holmes was a longtime resident of East Providence who lives previously in Providence, Barrington and Seekonk, Mass.

She was an alumna of Lincoln School and Brown University, Class of 1952. Upon graduation she held administrative positions there in the Registrar’s Office for 13 years before joining the Brown/Harvard Medical Research Project.  Following that, she worked in the personnel department of the former R.I. Hospital Trust National Bank.

A direct descendant of James Chilten, she was a member of the Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants. She was a Corporator of Steere House, a member of the Alumna Association of Lincoln School and was her class scribe for many years.  She was a member of the Museum of Finer Arts in Boston, the RISD Museum in Providence and the Brown Faculty Club.

Active in Republican politics, she served as a Service Academy Interviewer in the Providence office of Sen. John Chafee.  A lifelong Episcopalian, she was a member of St John’s Episcopal Church in Barrington.

She is survived by several cousins.

Her funeral will be held Thursday, Jan. 3, at 11 am in the Chapel of Swan Point Cemetery, Blackstone Boulevard, Providence. Burial will follow.

Arrangements are being handled by the Monahan Drabble Sherman Funeral Home.